otherwise a river

no longer too hipster to be muslim

This one reminds me of what I learned about Antinomian Sufis in college; learning about them struck me because they would shave off their hair and make themselves “ugly” just to show the outwardly pious Muslims that Islam isn’t something you wear or look like but something you are. Not that the folks in this link are ugly by any means but they differ from the archetype of a Muslim. This form of Sufism came about from Khorasan and spread throughout Central and South Asia. They would see the hijab, the emulation of the Prophet in dress with the short pants and the beard, and they saw that Islam became a performance, an outfit of piety, and not necessarily a truthful or genuine one. When I originally heard about the Sufis mentioned above in Professor Babayan’s class, it made an impression upon me because they boldly declared an image of Islam that others rejected and this is bringing about similar feelings.